Slain Kelowna drug smuggler had been denied parole for criminal ties

A Kelowna drug smuggler murdered on Feb. 18 had been denied parole a year ago because of information he “may be more actively involved in organized crime than previously believed,” according to documents obtained by The Vancouver Sun.

Jeremy Daniel Snow, 33, and his girlfriend Tiffany June Goruk, 30, were found dead in West Kelowna after her Cadillac Escalade crashed outside the luxury condo complex where she lived. Police said the two were already dead when the black SUV hit a lamp standard about 11 p.m. that night.

RCMP Cpl. Dan Moskaluk said this week that there are no new developments in the investigation of the double murder.

Snow was arrested in the U.S. on March 5, 2009 after flying a helicopter into northern Idaho with 150 pounds of marijuana aboard. He had also agreed to bring cocaine back into B.C. Undercover American agents posing as ground crew at his landing site arrested him.

Snow pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 46 months in jail, after claiming he was pressured to do a single drug run. He was allowed to transfer to a B.C. jail on June 23, 2011.

He was denied both day and full parole on March 9, 2012, when information about his links to organized crime was noted by the Parole Board of Canada. Parole documents show that board members had concerns Snow was minimizing his involvement in the cross-border smuggling scheme.

“The board is also left with questions about your credibility when you described how you became involved in the crime,” the documents say. “You were unable to completely explain why you would have chosen to assist the organization that was trafficking the drugs and the board has some concerns about your level of transparency.”

Parole board members noted that Snow’s case management team (CMT) inside prison didn’t support his release on parole and that one halfway house, which had been willing to take him, withdrew its offer because of his continuing criminal links.

“Your CMT does not support you for either day or full parole given the information that they have received from the community and RCMP regarding your suspected level of involvement in organized criminal activity,” the parole board said.

“You were quite categorical in denying that you have any current associations or ties with organized crime.”

Snow also denied prison intelligence that he had been “associating with a high-ranking gang member” at one Canadian jail in which he served time.

Snow told the parole board he thought he would get released quickly once he was returned to Canada.

“You said that you were very disappointed after transferring to a Canadian prison from the United States to learn that you would not be released fairly quickly as you had thought, the board said.

Snow eventually got statutory release (normally automatic after serving 2/3 of a sentence) – just months before his murder.